Dreamt Fantasy
by Spaz-kun
Summary: The heart is, above all, a traitorous thing. Sora finds himself torn between two worlds that claim to be real as he desperately tries to keep his memories together. Destiny Island has never been as close as this.


_Dreamt Fantasy_

_Undocumented Chapter_

"You don't remember."

"Cut me some slack. I haven't seen you in what-three years you said?"

The man regarded him with bright, brown eyes and smiled good-naturedly before returning to his task, hewing down beach saplings with a sharp-looking machete.

"I'm sure it'll come to me if I think more, so just gimme' a bit, ya? You do _look_familiar."

He paused, wiped at the sweat stinging his eyes with a wristband and tossed the kid a still-green sapling.

"Know what? Lulu never forgets a face. Help me with this last batch and we'll head back to the village for some grub, ya?"

Wakka paused, gave the scrawny kid a once-over and chuckled. He couldn't have been older than seventeen, though he was a good four or five inches shorter than Tidus. Maybe he'd tried out for the Aurochs as a boy and Wakka just couldn't remember…

"By the way, it's Sora."

'_Hey, Sora! Let's spar!'_

"Hmm?" Wakka hacked at another greenling once, twice, three times until it snapped. He added it to the growing pile in the kid's arms and nodded once.

"Sora. Good name. Does sound familiar…"

Sora looked away, hefting the sapling stalks in his arms a few times till none were slipping.

"Listen, Wakka, I don't think I can make it to meet Lulu…My mom's calling me home anyways."

"Your ma? You can't possibly hear her from the shore!" Wakka exclaimed, whirling around to stare in disbelief at…at no one. The saplings were in a pile on the floor where he'd been stacking them before that Sora boy had happened upon him.

"Too much sun," Wakka murmured after a thoughtful pause, yanking off his blue bandana and wiping at the sweat on his brow. "Need a swim, anyhow..."

"You went to him!"

"It's not like it matters, Lu. He didn't recognize me."

Sora followed the mage's swift paces with lazy eyes, semi-aware of the scorching fury she exuded with every step. The boy had appeared to her after sun-down, conveniently after Wakka had left for the statue beyond the Village to cool down; the heat of Besaid was powerful in the summer, but there always seemed to be a breeze by the structure. Interestingly enough, Wakka hadn't mentioned a word of the encounter to her.

"You had no right! How am I supposed to explain your inconceivable theory of 'Other Worlds' to Besaid, let alone the absurd idea that Wakka and Tidus are from…from…"

"Somewhere other than this? Than home?"

Lulu gazed angrily at the lanky boy who stared at her innocently enough from his perch on the edge of Wakka's bed. He was an annoying little pest, overly cheery, yet depressing a minute later when things didn't go his way. It was a childish habit that made him nigh intolerable to her. And his eyes…they were as blue and naïve as Tidus's when they'd first met.

"Hush. Don't speak of such things," she murmured, subdued for the moment. Sora silently decided to be agreeable and didn't push the subject. He didn't know why his dreams had taken him here, to a place where Tidus and Wakka were heroes and Auron was…dead. Or why Wakka couldn't remember him at all. It wasn't fair. Not to him, and not to Lulu who he so obviously baned with his presence. But there was a reason for everything, a world of importance in every minute detail of every waking moment he lived…or dreamed. But, according to Lulu, dreaming was how everything began in the first place. Tidus, warm flesh though he was, had been a dream of someone ancient and grand before becoming his own man, his own conscience thought by leave of the Fayth.

Sora abruptly stood, hands fisting in his hair. "Then what's real?" he demanded angrily, unable to contain himself. "If Tidus was from Zanarkand, then who was it I grew up beside? And if you've known Wakka all his life, how can I have too? There can't be two of them! Does all this make _me_ a dream?"

Lulu searched the boy's eyes helplessly. "There are many things that I don't know, Sora," the woman quietly admitted, sinking to the cushioned divan across from her and Wakka's bed. "And things I professed to know about…the teachings of Yevon…so much has been refuted and proven as false treachery. I can only tell you a piece of wisdom that has yet to fail me: Everyone has a-"

"-a story," Sora bitterly finished, eyes averted. "Everyone has a story, and mine is the only one that can't fit anywhere."

Lulu's wine-eyes softened imperceptibly. She was going to explain the concept of sending to the boy when Tidus's voice drifted past the tent.

"Sora, no!" Lulu hissed, but it was too late, he'd already bolted past the flap. The woman almost tripped in her haste as she lashed out and grazed the collar of his blue shirt, missing any purchase that could've helped her yank him back inside. She winced when Tidus's cheerful chatter abruptly stopped, and with her dignity bruised, Lulu sighed, brushed her bangs back with slender fingers and followed the scamp outside.

"Uh, Lu? Who's he?"

Tidus glanced from the shorter kid in his path back to the statuesque mage curiously. Yuna took a gentler approach and smiled kindly at the boy who gazed at Tidus with…resentment, maybe? She couldn't place it, but was surprised to find his blue eyes misty. She glanced at Lulu who's expression had nothing to say.

"I'm Sora. We're the same age, you just don't remember. But Kairi didn't either, at least not at first." Sora paused, glancing between a much larger Tidus and the woman beside him. Their hands were clasped loosely together. "A lot happened to you, and I'm sorry," he continued in a choked voice, embarrassed by his complete lack of composure. "But I'm glad you found home, Tidus. And for a little while, I did too, back on Destiny Island with the whole gang. You know. Selphie, Kairi…Wakka."

Tidus was silent, and Lulu felt angry that he didn't just stop the boy and end his misery by saying it. Saying he didn't remember.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save our…old home. That everything had to break apart. Maybe that's why you n' Wakka are here. Or maybe you really are from Zanarkand and I'm the one who's a far-off memory. A dream. A cloud of fire-flies."

"Pyre-flies. They're…they're called pyre-flies. Sora."

Yuna's gaze rose to search Tidus's somber eyes after he spoke. His hand was beginning to grow cold in hers. She squeezed it gently, unable to gauge him as he stood there and shook, as if anything this boy, this Sora had said could hide any coherence to the Tidus beside her. It couldn't be true. None of it, she adamantly thought. They had already unraveled the secrets behind Tidus's place in Spira. But Tidus's eyes held the look of someone beguiled by childhood memories. And this horrified her.

"Come, Sora." Lulu's hushed voice. The sobbing youth allowed himself to be led away by the black mage, and Yuna heard the barely perceptible utterance of, "Sleep." as Lulu disappeared behind the tent. The sobbing stilled into quiet breathing almost immediately, and she reemerged to glare sternly at Tidus. Yuna leaned against him, touched his face and whispered, "Whatever it is, we'll speak later."

He didn't respond, sliding his hand out of Yuna's and stalking towards the edge of the village. Yuna turned to follow, but Lulu stopped her.

"Let him think. Come inside and purify this one's mind-there is too much anguish within him."

Yuna turned to do as she was told, but a sense of dread had already gripped her stomach.

This boy, this Sora with the sky-blue eyes was to be the undoing of them all.

He was remembering memories that weren't his. And he didn't have Sin to blame it on this time. Tidus swore and leaned against the cold stone of the rocks that jarred out of the sand, unable to stop the slow eddy of anger welling in the pit of his stomach. He'd escaped to the beach, where the only disturbance was the whispered push-pull of the tide.

"You spoke to him, eh?"

Tidus flinched as the familiar voice washed over him calmly.

"I'm…remembering things, Wakka."

"Me too. Me too, kid."

"Doesn't it scare you? I mean, my past is a screwed up mess, but you…You're whole life is here. In Besaid," Tidus insisted, turning his gaze upwards to meet the somber one of his friend's. Wakka sighed and settled down beside the younger man, eyes following the sweep of blue that was Besaid's ocean.

"The heart is a mysterious thing, Tidus. Sometimes, when we sleep, it travels places. Visits other worlds, ya?"

"Those are just dreams," Tidus scoffed, but the words caught in his throat as Wakka eyed him levelly. He should've known just how real dreams could become.

"So what, we've _been_ places in our sleep? Is that it?" he demanded of an unusually pensive Wakka. The same shrugged, not agreeing, not refuting Tidus's sarcastically made point.

"All I'm saying is, I remember him, Tidus. Said no at first, but…"

"We can't deny it," Tidus finished bitterly. "He's connected to us. Somehow."

If you think this story has no coherence whatsoever, you're right in a way. This isn't the beginning, and it certainly isn't the end. It's just a test to see if the idea I've developed would survive out here. Feedback of all kind is appreciated. Thanks for reading.

~Spaz


End file.
